Anyone know anything on the nutritional content of wheat grass? We get wheat grass flats (1'x2' with 2-3" grass shoots) for our pigs and they adore them and munch all day. I was wondering if anyone knows the calcium content and whatnot of the grass. Also, how often/much can they eat?

I decided to research this a little since my girls love wheatgrass so much (and business has been really slow lately so I have a lot of time on my hands). I found out that it's hard to get real definitive information on the nutritional content of fresh wheatgrass although there's a plethora of info on tablets and juice.

After combing through a bunch of healthfood sites, these are some of the things I found:

Most of the wheatgrass we see is from red wheatberry seeds, which is very close to barley in terms of nutritional content.

It looks like the Ca:P ratio should be pretty good (1.07:1). It's high in Vitamin C and fairly high in protein (approx. 30%), which are some of the things I look for. It's also quite high in Vitamin K and is one of the more alkaline grasses.

Two watch-outs are 1) it's high in iron so it shouldn't be fed everyday and 2) if you're growing it yourself or using flats, be careful about mold.

I started to get excited when I saw an article about guinea pig health and wheatgrass, until I noticed the date of publication—1938.

Are you sure wheatgrass isn't wheat? I've read that to grow wheatgrass you plant wheat grains. So that would be wheat. And the wheatgrass I buy at the health food store has been started from wheat seeds as well.

Just a note on mold - I get the flats from a health food store. They trim what they need for juicing and dispose of the rest. The flats only last a day or two before we notice mold. People should be very careful and attentive about this!

My piggies adore wheatgrass, but they only gets them once a week - partly because I only 2 trays, and partly because our McMac tends to have "wetter" poops when he gets too much wheatgrass.

We buy seeds at the farmers market, comes $1/pound, and we can get 4 trays out of 1 pound of seeds.
We keep them outside too, we find that it was a mold magnet when we kept them inside last summer. We also find they tend to grow faster outdoors, and have had not a mold incident since then.

Seeing this post prompted me to do some research on chia pets. The seeds they provide grow "salvia columbariae, a member of the watercress family" according to their website. I looked on the forages page and couldn't find anything about watercress. Chia also makes 'cat grass' which is a 'sweet oak and wheatgrass mix'. Again, I'm not sure if this is okay for my boys. I was thinking it would look cute to have my piggies eating sprouts off a chia pet, but I'm not sure if watercress is piggie friendly. Also, as popular as chia pets are, I'm thinking they must be idiot-proof, which would help me and my not-so-green-thumb.

I guess I'm asking if chia's watercress would be edible or if I should just try to grow some wheatgrass instead?

I think the idea of the chia pet is cute too, but I don't think the sprouts off of it are anchored extremely well are they? Just seems like one feeding would destroy the whole thing. Of course, that might just be because I'm thinking of how my girls suck up grasses like spaghetti. Your pigs might be a little more polite than my girls. ;-)

cutemomomi, if your piggy has an issue with wetter poops with wheatgrass, don't feed as much at one time. I started out with about the size of my thumb, per piggy, once a day. And increased it from there. Now we just cut off a huge clump and throw it in their cage twice a day. I have only let them "free feed" off of our wheatgrass flat a couple times for photo ops. :D

My pigs like watercress and land cress. It is common in human salads. I LOVE the land cress,it has a wonderful nutty flavor. Watercress requires a lot of moisture, so you need to water it frequently. You couldn't keep it in the pig cage where the wetness might mold and it wouldn't get enough light. You could put it near a window and give it to the pigs occasionally, though. Wheatgrass probably needs a fair amount of light.

Keep in mind when growing greens that they will "bolt", or go to seed at temperatures higher than 80 degrees. Parsley and cilantro will also bolt in hot weather. So if you live in a warm climate, now is not the time to plant. There are numerous perennial herbs that will last in patio planters if you plant them now. My pigs like oregano , thyme, and lemon balm.

I just buy a bag of bluegrass sold for lawns. It's lasted 2years growing the grass in two 30gallon plastic storage containers. Needs plenty of light though and being in a basement aparment I had to hang a plant light strip over it.

Mine didn't find watercress interesting either. I thought I'd grow some in my smaller aquarium for them and it worked but they wouldn't eat it. Watercress will grow with standing water around it's stem and the top leaves above the surface. You can just toss in the stems you buy at the grocery store and they'll sprout. No need for seeds and doesn't make too bad of aquarium plant.